Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The word enthusiasm is a godly word. "En theos" is where enthusiasm comes from, which means "in God." And if you're in Christ, praise is a natural and necessary response to someone who's been blessed like us.

Pastor Brett Meador says the abundant grace that healed a cripple is the same grace available to save souls. You were saved from your crippled, sinful condition, headed for hell and destruction. And guess what? Christ saved you from that. You and I have reason to be walking and leaping and praising God. Praising God is part of the deal.

Guest (Male): After years of helplessness, the healing of a man lame from birth immediately stood, walked, leaped, and praised God in the temple. But it's more than just the response of the beggar from Acts chapter three that Pastor Brett Meador says we can learn from the transforming power of the grace of God. In today's Word, we'll see the ultimate redemption offered to us all.

Brett Meador: Acts chapter 3, verse one. It says, "Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who seeing Peter and John about to go up into the temple asked an alms.

"And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, 'Look on us.' And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, 'Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.'

"And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."

There are some things about this story that are worth noting. I think perhaps we can glean from this story so many things. I'd like to just point out a few of them. First, I want to point out a sad contrast, a sad contrast. The contrast here is interesting. We have a crippled beggar who, apart from God's help, is really hopeless. He has no hope apart from God.

I want you to kind of keep in the back of your mind as we study this that you and I are the crippled beggar in the story. We've been crippled with sin. We've been doomed and hopeless. But when Jesus comes along, then we realize we have hope in Christ, and that's where our only hope will be found. We have heaven to look forward to and healing from our sins. So you can in some ways kind of keep that tucked away. We're the crippled guy.

We're going to see this, but here's something you should know. A crippled guy was not allowed to go to the Temple Mount in those days. And it's by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he's healed and he gets to go into the temple. We have the contrast of this religion, the Temple Mount, and Jews doing this pious worshiping of God. Meanwhile, there's this poor crippled man outside that has no hope and no help. Jesus is all about fixing that.

You're the crippled one in sin. You've been crippled by sin, and so have I. But good news, when Peter says by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk, that same healing is available to you today. And I love that. The sad contrast is when religion sort of is the wall that keeps people away from Christ.

Now we also notice in this story, number two, on our observations here, we see a sinner seeking. You see this guy doesn't need just to be healed from his crippled situation. He needs to be saved, like everybody else on the planet. But what's this guy seeking? Well, he's seeking one thing, but he really needs another thing. This is something we see all the time.

Remember the crippled guy that was lowered through the roof with Jesus? They wanted to see him healed from his crippled condition. Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." And everybody's like, "What? That's not really what we came for." But Jesus knew that was his greatest need. But then Jesus, to prove that he was able to forgive sins, he healed the guy from his crippled situation. Same thing's really true of this guy. He's a sinner who's seeking. And what he's seeking is alms, it says. He's seeking after money. He wants money.

But sometimes what you need to give people is not what they really want. And that leads us to the next point of observation. I love the sensitive saints. Sensitive saints, yeah. Peter and John. Did you notice they seem like they're going with great resolve to pray in the temple? And yet they have a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. I call it a Holy Spirit antenna.

And we have them sensitive to this guy's need. And not only that, they're sensitive enough to hear that don't just throw money at him. Don't just flip him a coin and walk in and do your prayer. But actually turn and fasten your eyes. I like the intentional looking into the eyes of this guy and getting his attention. And not letting him go, "Alms, alms, alms" with his head on a swivel. Peter says, "Look at me." And he expects to get something from him.

But what he gets is not money, but he gets what he needs. And that is Jesus. I love that. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means as a Christian having your spiritual antenna up and dialed in when the Lord prompts you to do something. Sometimes you have to just say, "You know what? This is not on my schedule today." But sometimes the worst distractions are actually divine appointments. And you have to be ready for those.

So they fastened their eyes on him and said... Now what they said was great. "Silver and gold have I none." Question: Did Peter and John have any silver and gold at that time? What happened in chapter two? The people sold all their possessions and gave all their money and put it really at the apostles' feet. We're going to see that more in the book of Acts. And they had everything in common and they took care of each other that way.

Is Peter lying? No, I don't think he's lying. I think what he said... Maybe he didn't have any money on him. That could be true. But in a sense, you might sense silver and gold have I none for you. That's kind of I think what happened. I think Peter could have mustered up some money with the church, the 3000 saints, and said, "Hey, we got this crippled guy needs some money." I'm pretty sure Peter could have got some money for this guy.

And if you look at the context of the story, it seems like Peter had access to that. But the idea is no, silver and gold have I none because that's not what you need. But such as I have give I to thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Which is much better than silver and gold, by the way. I think this is something you've got to be careful when you're seeing someone who's in need. Don't just throw money at that. You can, and that can be a part of the deal.

But more could it be just food or prayer? Could it be prayer for healing? Could it be someone hearing the gospel and being saved? And you know, I think that we have to remember that it's not all about the money. I am concerned that some churches and whole big denominations, it's kind of all about the money. And we've lost our effectiveness. We'll throw money at something when really we should be saying, "No, this is more of a spiritual thing. This person needs to be saved or healed or touched by God."

There's a story told, an old story, one of the early saints of the church in Rome who walked in on the Pope as he was counting money. Realizing that he walked in on something which was private, he started to turn around and walk out. The Pope said to him, "No longer can the church say silver and gold have I none." As the saintly man continued to walk out, he said, "Neither can the church say to the impotent man, rise up and walk."

That's kind of an indictment. I hope the church that we're not all about... Now there's a thing out there that says churches... people are bashing churches for building a building or putting a parking lot in or something like that. I think that that can be a useful thing. A church building is very useful. So these people are going, "I can't believe they spent money on a church building." But gathering together as the church is something the Bible tells us to do.

In those days, they were able to use the temple or borrowed buildings and they also met from house to house. But as centuries went by, church became persecuted. They started building their own church building so they could gather and meet, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I do think if that's all we're about, we can be off course. And some churches are all about that.

And of course, there's abuses with money. But I do think it's important for us to say, yeah, the church is a place where we give of our tithe and offering. That's what I believe is the storehouse. But more importantly that we need to be caring for the poor and giving to the poor. Not just saying silver and gold have I none and so I'm not going to give you any money. That's an important thing.

Anyway, using resources wisely, whether it's giving money or not, but being sensitive. That's what I love about Peter. He was sensitive to this particular person's problem. Now, I also love that Peter was clear in saying "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." He didn't say, "I command thee, demon of crippledness" or whatever. Have you ever noticed that some of these guys like to get the credit for what they're doing? Even though it's not him, it's the Holy Spirit moving through him and in him.

I like how Peter says, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." That's where the real power is. The power was not in Pontiff Peter. I say that jokingly for you that are concerned. The power was not in John. The power was in the Holy Spirit, but by the name of Jesus Christ. And this is important. The reason I want to remind you of this is we're starting to see what Jesus was talking about. This is the first hint of something that's important.

Do you remember when Jesus said, "Peter, John, guys, it's good that I'm leaving you." Remember John 16:7? "Expedient" is the word the King James uses. It's really good that I'm leaving you. Why? Does anybody remember why is it good he's leaving us? For the Comforter, the Holy Spirit's going to come, right? And I'm sure the disciples were like, "Great, I guess that's okay, but we don't want you leaving us." No, it's good that I'm going to leave you because I'm going to send my Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

And then Jesus said something that people misinterpret all the time. I've heard bad teachings on this one, but in John 14, let me show you this verse. In John 14:12, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go to my Father."

Now, I've heard sermons how you can be greater than Jesus. If you hear that sermon, you better just turn it off and say, "Wacko, totally wacko." You and I will never be greater than Jesus. Well, then what's this saying? Well, that's kind of easy. If you look at the original language, it's a little easier. But it's not greater in like you're going to be greater than Jesus. It's greater not in power, but greater in volume. That's what he's talking about. Greater in number.

There's going to be greater works. Jesus limited himself purposely to be one man. He was God in the flesh, but he was limited. He didn't go to multiple places at one time and start multiplying himself and doing miracle upon miracle everywhere all over the world. He said, "No, I'm going to leave that to you, the church. It's going to be greater in the sense that I'm going to have my power that I have by God's power, the Holy Spirit. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and you guys are going to do the same things that I was doing. Only greater in number and you'll be more effective because of the number of people healed."

Here is where now we see Peter performing, if you would, a miracle just like Jesus. This is a Jesus-level miracle. It's like the guy that was lowered into the house and suddenly he takes up his bed and walks. Same thing. And now we've got Peter doing that, and we're going to see the apostles and Paul the apostle. He's going to be Mr. Miracle. People are going to touch his garments and be healed like just like Jesus. So it's not that Peter was greater than Jesus, you can't say that. We are going to do more numerous because the church is going to be filled with the spirit.

Now you say, Brett, that's great. So the Holy Spirit can fill me and work through me? The answer is absolutely yes. And how do you get the Holy Spirit? We're going to go through this in the book of Acts even more, but I'll just give you kind of the main gist. This is speaking of parents. Jesus says, "If you then, you parents, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

How do you get the Holy Spirit? By asking. James says you have not because you ask not. When was the last time you said, "Lord, would you just fill me afresh with your Holy Spirit? That I can move in a way like Peter and John. Like when I'm going to work, Lord, would your spirit be upon me so I can be sensitive to the situation around me and know people that need to be loved on and cared for, prayed for, the gospel to be shared." Be sensitive to the spirit. How do you get that? You get that by just simply asking. So reaching out, "Lord, would you help me do this?"

Now, I love the supernatural part of this story that we have here, but did you notice there's a part of it that's more supernaturally natural? And this is a part I want to show you before we get to my final point, and that is this. Did you notice that Peter reaches out, it says here in verse seven, and he took him by the right hand and lifted him up? And immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.

It seems like a lot of times with miracles in the Bible, there needs to be sort of a natural movement before the supernatural movement. It reminds me of, remember when the priests had to cross the Jordan River but it was flooded? And the Lord told the priests, "You need to go start walking into the water, carrying the Ark of the Covenant of all things." And they went to their ankles, and then they went to their knees, and then they went... They got deeper and deeper, like, "Is this going to work?" But they had to just naturally start wading into the river and eventually when it got deep enough, finally the river parted and they were able to walk on dry land.

But sometimes you've got to do the natural thing first, a little movement. Remember the guy that had the withered hand in Capernaum and Jesus said, "Stretch forth your hand"? The guy could have said, "Are you kidding? That's the whole point, I can't. I can't stretch forth... I have a withered hand, hello!" Like he could have said that. But before his supernatural thing would happen, he had to naturally attempt to say, "Okay, I'm going to do something I can't do, I'm going to stretch forth my hand."

In the same way, you see that in miracles a lot of times. Sometimes there needs to be a little bit of a natural movement like Peter reaching down with his right hand and pulling this guy up before he even knew... Are his ankles okay for this? Are they healed yet? And sometimes we need to help on a natural level. What does that look like? I don't know.

I remember my dad and a few of his friends, they had a buddy at church that was a raging alcoholic. And he'd lost his job and lost his family and he was about to lose his life. One of those guys, you know, at that point of pretty much going to die. And so my dad and a few other buddies, they said, "If it kills us, we're going to get this guy sober."

And one of the guys had a cabin and they put this guy in a cabin and then my dad and his buddies, they rotated watching this guy. And you know, they prayed for the power of the spirit. They prayed that the Lord would heal him of his alcoholism. But they practically helped him naturally to say, "We're going to be there and we're going to stand with you." And if you would, it's like all those guys with their right hand pulling this guy out of that hole. And eventually, eventually the Lord was able to do the miracle part where the guy no longer drinks alcohol, no longer is messed up, and his life is restored. Sometimes the Lord will require a little bit of work on your part, the right hand pulling up part, as well as the supernatural.

Well, anyway, a lot of stuff in this story. But this is kind of the fun part, the last one. Let's notice this. So if you've been following with us, we got the sad contrast, the sinner seeking, the sensitive saints. I love all of these attributes. But finally, notice the sweet praise at the end.

But how does he praise God? I think it's great. It's kind of a three-fold thing. Verse eight: walking, leaping, and praising God. First of all, walking. In the Bible, having a walk with the Lord is a common thread throughout the whole Bible. Who's probably the most famous guy in the Bible who was known to walk with God? Enoch. There's not much in the Bible about Enoch. We don't know much about him at all. There's only a few verses given him, but he's one of the greats in the Bible. Because there's no record of sin that he did, it just says in Genesis chapter five, "Enoch walked with God." That's it!

In the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 11, it says, "Enoch walked with God and pleased God." That's it! So he walked with God and pleased God. But man, if I got my name in the Bible, I think I'd want it like that. I wouldn't want it like David. David got his name in the Bible and David committed adultery and murdered a guy and was kind of a weirdo sometimes, did stupid stuff. But he did some nice things too.

But Enoch, man, he goes down as just the dude that walked with God. What does walk imply? Steady progress. Just a steady walk. Not a sprint where you get tired out and you stop and sit down and give up. But just a walk, a steady progress. How we need Christians that are walking with God. I think having a walk with Christ is what you need. Are you walking with the Lord? Reading your word daily? Praying daily? Are you fellowshipping with other Christians, walking with the Lord and making that a part of your daily walk? I'm thankful that I had people in my life as a kid that really had steady walks with the Lord.

Growing up in my family, there were things that were non-negotiable. Going to church on Sunday, non-negotiable. It's so sad to me how school sports have ruined a lot of families. I love sports. I'm pro-kids playing sports, huge fan of that. But I'm so thankful that I had a family that said, "Sunday, that's what you do." Or Saturday night. But I'm thankful that my family had a walk that was so steady. It was like, yeah, church is... Not just Sunday, by the way, Wednesday night Bible study was a non-negotiable.

I remember when my football practices were told we're going to go later in the mid-part of the week. And I had to tell my coaches, "Sorry, coach, I can't do later on Wednesdays because I have church on Wednesday." "Oh, come on, you can do that." And I said, "Nope." They even threatened, "Well, you may not be a starter next week in the game then because we don't let people that don't show up to practice start."

Now you've got to understand, I was a starter from the first day of my life in freshman football. I was a starter on the... like we were hiring our cheerleaders to play football at my high school. Like I was the only guy on the team over 200 pounds my senior year. We were hurting! So I just said, "Well, sorry, coach. It wasn't even an option." I knew my dad would say no. Wednesday night's a priority. Me going to Wednesday night Bible study with a pastor who went verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, and not skipping that for four years of my life, guess what? That paid off way more than had I played a couple extra football games.

Now, by the way, the Lord worked out the football thing. The coaches weren't really willing to not have me play. So it worked out nicely. But I do want to say I fear that this steady walk is something that people kind of chalk off because we're shockingly busy with other things and we don't have time for the Lord. Walking.

The second thing we see him doing is leaping. Walking and leaping. What does leaping imply? I think leaping implies joy. Like leaping for joy. And I think that this is kind of a cool expression. This guy was hopeless, sitting there begging for alms, and now he's leaping for joy. I hope you don't lose your joy. You know, the Psalmist said, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation." "Rejoice in the Lord always; again," Paul said, "I say rejoice!" Like don't lose your joy.

I hope you're a Christian that leaps when you think about it. Some of the things that we have that the Lord has done for us, we have so much to be thankful for. The word enthusiasm is a godly word. "En theos" is where enthusiasm comes from, which means "in God." And if you're in Christ, we should show a little more enthusiasm. If we're not careful, we become God's chosen frozen. But you and I have reason to rejoice.

And if there's ever a good place to rejoice, you should be joyful when we worship. I hope you turn on the switch and say, "You know what?" "But Brett, what if I don't feel like it?" Remember David who was a worship guy? He was Mr. Worship, wrote most of the Psalms. He called himself the soul. He said, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me. Bless his holy name!" Like David had to kind of slap himself and say, "Time to bless the Lord, come on, let's go!" I wonder if you need to say to yourself when you walk into church, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me" with everything you've got.

We need you to walk, yes, but we also need you to leap and then thirdly, beautifully praising God. I think it's so important. Praise is something the Bible... it's also a non-negotiable. Praise is a natural and necessary response to someone who's been blessed like us. Praising God is part of the deal. And we know that because the Bible makes that clear. Psalm 150 verse six: "Let everything that has breath," what? "Praise the Lord!" And then it finishes with "Praise ye the Lord!" Like "let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise ye the Lord." Like this is a word from God's Word to you and me.

And you say, "Come on, Brett, this guy was crippled and now he's healed. No wonder he's walking and leaping and praising God." But again, remember how we started? You're the crippled person. And you were saved from your crippled, sinful condition headed for hell and destruction. Eternity in hell, that's worse than being crippled in this lifetime. Going to hell is worse than being crippled. And guess what? Christ saved you from that. You and I have reason to be walking and leaping and praising God. Amen?

Guest (Male): Reason to praise God indeed. That's Pastor Brett Meador with a powerful message of redemption drawn from Acts chapter three in today's Word. And Pastor Brett will be sharing more about how to receive the saving grace we've heard about today in just a moment.

But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. And we invite you to listen each day for more. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at TodaysWordRadio.com. You can also watch full video messages from him by going to TodaysWordRadio.com. Well, now let's rejoin Pastor Brett with some important closing remarks.

Brett Meador: Oh Lord, I pray as we consider this story that our hearts would be stirred to learn from this story. So many things that we can think about here. But above all, Lord, you saved us from our sins. Didn't deserve it. We didn't earn being touched and healed and being able to walk and leap and praise. But Lord, you did it for us, and we're so thankful for that.

I'd like to invite, there might be somebody here who is not saved. Maybe you've not been healed. What is a Christian who's saved? It's a person who realizes they're a sinner and acknowledges that before God. To acknowledge that you're a sinner, the word is repent. That means to acknowledge that you have sinned against God, and we've all done that. The Bible says no one is guiltless. But good news: while we were yet sinners, Christ died on the cross for your sins in your place, substitutionarily. He did that, but here's the thing: you must receive that and believe that.

That's why John 3:16, that famous verse, "For God so loved the world..." because you might say, "Well, if God loves people, he'd save people." Exactly! "But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him," Christ, "will not perish but have everlasting life."

What does it mean to believe? The Greek word there is an interesting word that means to put your full trust in. And so to be saved is Romans 10:9 and 10: "If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus Christ, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And it's with the mouth confession is made to salvation."

See, some people say, "You mean you can just confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and be saved?" Yes! Some people will try to make it worse than that. "Oh, you got to be better and you got to do good stuff and pay your money into tithe." No, that's stuff people have added. To be saved is one thing, good works is another thing. But saved, you got to repent, confess, and believe. That's what the Bible says. If that's you and you're saying, "Brett, I want to accept Christ, I'm going to pray this prayer of confession," let's pray together.

Dear Father in heaven, I believe in your Son, Jesus. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins, that he rose up from the grave, and that my sins are forgiven. Help me to walk with you. Thank you for saving me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on Today's Word. And if you just prayed those words with Pastor Brett, we want to welcome you into the family of God. And to help, we've put together some teachings that will assist you as you begin your walk with Jesus. Just go to our website at TodaysWordRadio.com and click on the link that says "Are you a new believer?" Again, TodaysWordRadio.com and click on the link "New Believer."

Well, we're so glad you've joined us today. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue another verse-by-verse study in the book of Acts. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.